Lez #41+42 FSRS principles: tracking ultrafast reactions in biomolecules II

We discussed the paradigmatic case of Myoglobin, where FSRS has been exploited to: i) interpret transient absorption experiments to discriminate between two possible contrasting scenarios related to the existence of transient electronic states vs vibrational cooling. ii) determine how the absorbed photon energy, initially stored in delocalized low frequency heme modes, is very efficiently funneled into specific high frequency modes prior to slow dissipation through the protein 

We then discussed the case of MPT studied by FSRS, where an ultrafast motion outside the Franck Condon region is observed, followed by vibrational cooling and singlet to triplet internal conversion. This example illustrates the synergy among transient absorption, FSRS and DFT calculations.